The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, History, Merits and Debates

This webinar is presented by Professor Dina Porat
Date: Thursday, February 26, 2026 
Time: 9am PT / 10am MT / 11am CT / 12pm ET 
Webinar length is approx 90 mins, ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the event.

As psychologists stirred by the recent rise in expressions of bias and hate against Jews, we are motivated to understand the causes and consequences of antisemitism at the individual and societal levels and to help victims deal with the trauma.  While we do that, we want to learn how other scholarly disciplines understand antisemitism.  This has led us to invite Dr. Dina Porat, a highly respected historian, to share with us the history, merits and debates of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Prof. Dina Porat is the founding head of the Kantor Center for the study of Contemporary European Jewry, in Tel Aviv University (TAU) and served as head of the Department of Jewish History, of the Rosenberg School for Jewish Studies and as incumbent of the Alfred P. Slaner Chair in Antisemitism and Racism, all in Tel Aviv University. She also served as the Yad Vashem chief historian from 2010 to 2021 and is now its academic advisor.

She was awarded prizes for most of her many publications, including the Jewish National Book Award for her biography of Abba Kovner (2010) and the Bahat Prize for the Nakam book (2018). She was TAU's Faculty of Humanities' best teacher for 2004 and was awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Medal for 2012.  She is on the 50 leading Israeli scholars the Marker Magazine’s list of 2013 and on the 50 leading women in Israel list of Forbes in 2018, and was a visiting professor at Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, the University of Venice and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honour for 2025. 

 Dr. Porat tutored more than 30 M.A and 20 Ph.D. students; she served as an expert on Israeli Foreign Ministry delegations to UN world conferences, and as the academic advisor of the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (now IHRA).